It's Shark Week, our nation's annual Jaws-related freakout festival. While sharks can be scary (those videos of them extending their jaws always make me shudder) they are actually less of a danger than cars, dogs, lightning, and even dry-cleaning bags, which are implicated in about 25 unintentional deaths a year. Check below to learn 17 things you may not have known about sharks.

1. The largest shark, the whale shark, is a docile filter-feeder that lives on algae, krill and plankton. _(source)
2. A shark may grow over 20,000 teeth in its lifetime. (source)
3. Bull sharks can thrive in both salt and fresh water. They have been found as far from the ocean as Indiana in the Ohio River. (source)
4. There has never been a shark attack fatality that could conclusively be attributed to a hammerhead shark. (source)
5. In Hawaiian culture, hammerhead sharks are believed to be dieties that protect families from man-eating sharks. (source)
6. Mako sharks can jump up to 24 feet in the air. (source)
7. In 1936, a great white shark leaped out of the ocean and knocked a sailor on the fishing boat Lucky Jim into the water. (source)
8. Until the 16th century, sharks were referred to by mariners as sea dogs. (source)
9. Nearly 90% of shark attack victims are male. (source)
10. The meat of Greenland sharks is toxic when fresh, but can be eaten when dried or fermented. (source)
11. Tiger sharks are among the most dangerous to divers due to their inquisitive nature and indiscriminate eating habits. (source)
12. More people are killed by dogs every year than have been killed by great white sharks in recorded history. (source)
13. Hammerhead sharks have a 360 degree field of vision. (source)
14. No human has ever witnessed a great white giving birth in the wild. (source)
15. Whale sharks can live up to 70 years. (source)
16. Only 20 of the 400 plus species of shark are dangerous to humans. (source)
17. Orcas have been known to kill and eat great white sharks. (source)

Photo: StormyDog